IN A gritty urban neighbourhood of Los Angeles, where gangs and guns often rule, lesbian and gay students talk of their local school as a haven that allows them to be themselves away from the sometimes harsh judgment of their families.
Predominantly Latino and Catholic, the students, who attend James Monroe High School in North Hills in the San Fernando Valley, draw strength from one another and from an alliance with straight kids with whom they meet regularly to promote friendship and acceptance.
"This is the most gay-friendly school I've ever attended," says 18-year-old Hugo Meza, a senior, or year 12, student.
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Adds Mary Grace Ylagan, also 18: "I became myself when I came out here, and people have supported me. They accept me for who I am. My family, they don't give me the support that I need. So I love being in school."
Another student says simply: "People are respected here for being who they are."
James Monroe's Gay-Straight Alliance is one of a network of thousands of student clubs across the US that are part of a concerted effort by educators and rights groups to push back against anti-gay harassment in schools, recognised as a key factor in youth suicide.
Here, the 2000 students in years 9 to 12 know what persecution is and why it is not OK, and find themselves, unwittingly, in the vanguard of California's robust efforts to eliminate discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) students. Add a "Q", too, for those students who are questioning and have yet to discover their sexual identity.
"About 16 per cent of students across America have someone in their immediate family who's gay or is lesbian," says Dr Judy Chiasson, of the Office of Human Relations, Diversity and Equity in LA's Unified School District, which accounts for about 900 schools and 700,000 students, about 80per cent of whom are Latino. "Couple that with the 9 per cent of students who are gay ... and you're looking at a pretty substantial population."
Monroe is a model of inclusiveness that warms the heart of Chiasson, a former teacher, and Lewis Chappelear, a national teacher of the year finalist who has mentored its alliance over a decade and witnessed an evolving attitude of acceptance within the school.
A few years ago when the word "gay" was uttered over the public address system, Chappelear cringed instinctively. Now, word of alliance activities and the school's general anti-bullying message are routine in Monroe's lexicon.
Last year, the alliance invited students to pledge to make the world safer, launching their "pinkie promise" campaign in which students linked little fingers in a sign that they were on board.
Underpinning the pledge to prevent bullying, says Chappelear, was a promise also to be mindful of language. "As part of the pledge, you couldn't say, for example, 'That's so gay' and you can't say the F word [for faggot]," he says. In the past, students would argue that the terms were validated by TV and would protest: "I don't mean 'gay' gay."
But Monroe has re-engineered the meaning of cool: now, it's cool on campus to speak up for anyone who is being targeted, to be seen to be championing justice.
"In this school, it's now just totally uncool to say 'that's so gay' or to say 'faggot',” Chappelear says.
About 60 per cent of middle schools (years 5 to 8) and senior campuses in the immediate Los Angeles area have gay-straight alliances, according to Chiasson. Although not mandated, the district encourages them in every school amid a range of initiatives that have sprung from a 1988 resolution, so-called Project 10, calling for a safe and affirming environment in California's schools.
A just-passed state law heralds a further effort towards inclusiveness, the so-called FAIR Education Act, dictating the inclusion of LGBT people in future textbooks used by Californian schools from kindergarten to year 12.
The legislation, written into law by Governor Jerry Brown last July after a 49:25 vote in the state assembly, actually demands that the curriculum include "materials that accurately portray the role and contributions" of Pacific islanders as well as LGBT people and people with disabilities.
Some conservatives and religious opponents have objected, claiming the law has the potential to indoctrinate students to accept homosexuality, which many of their parents do not. But educationists counter that the law is not about teaching sex, but about recognising sexual identity in the same way that textbooks were rewritten in the 1960s to acknowledge America's civil rights history.
Support for California's law has come from far afield, too. "The only thing I, an ageing baby boomer, can recall learning in school about gay history is that if you were gay you were 'history', subject to being shunned or bullied by your peers," a senior Catholic educator wrote to The New York Times. "Kudos to California for bringing gay history out of the closet."
Even so, it could be four or five years before California's crippled budget allows it to recognise gay accomplishments in new textbooks, during which time detractors say they will campaign to have the law repealed. That won't discourage the alliance of gay and straight students at Monroe High, which recently celebrated an anti-bullying day in which students dressed in purple and danced through their lunch break.
On a national scale, Monroe's success may well be an exception, coinciding with an intensifying debate in the US over bullying in schools. Surveys suggests that most American students hear homophobic remarks frequently, if not daily, while at school, and eight in every 10 LGBT students reported having been verbally harassed in the past year. Absenteeism and poor academic performance among LGBT students are attributed often to bullying, with increased levels of victimisation more likely to lead to higher levels of depression and anxiety.
Part of the national fightback has involved the "It Gets Better" campaign to show LGBT teens that they are not alone. High-profile and other Americans have contributed video messages of support, including one from President Barack Obama and a follow-up put together by gay and lesbian White House staffers, both of which are available on YouTube. Meanwhile, 2000 schools across the country have taken up an anti-bullying pledge supported by the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network.
The actions go further than protecting LGBT students because, as Chiasson notes, "straight-identified males who are the target of anti-gay harassment have higher levels of distress in being called gay than do gay-identifying students". The education network recently sounded out students about harassment in schools and decided bullying most often focused on a student according to physical appearance and body size "and whether a student was perceived to be, quote-unquote, 'masculine' or 'feminine' enough", executive director Eliza Byard says.
"I think there's a common misconception that dealing with LGBT issues in K-through-12 schools is about ... promoting someone being lesbian or gay," she remarked recently on talkback radio. "Primarily, it is about reducing the sea of anti-LGBT sentiment that fuels a lot of bullying that has nothing to do with a specific personal animus against a gay individual. It's about the kind of language that fuels the problem."
While James Monroe High School may not be perfect — truancy remains an issue in a poor community where students are often called upon to help out at home or in a family business — it is doing plenty right in the eyes of its 100 or so Gay-Straight Alliance members, some of whom are unable to discuss their sexuality with family. That disconnect can have devastating effects: statistics suggest that LGBT children rejected by their families have suicide rates eight times higher than students generally.
"I think it is difficult with all families, but especially Hispanic families, Catholic families, because they always bring up the Bible," says one student. "They will always say, 'The Bible says if you're gay you're going to hell.' And I always say 'Yeah, but the Bible also says don't judge."'
Says 18-year-old Evelyn Corona: "Most people have been bullied at some point in their lives. So to be in a group that can make a difference is very satisfying."

You know,this preoccupation with who someone wants to sleep with/fall in love with is tedious.I know a lot of folks that are other than straight,and they seem to be normal,productive,decent members of society.A lot of them you couldn't tell they were gay even if you had "gaydar"(point in fact,there is a couple up near where I grew up,Republican,gun owners,hunters,homeowners.One is a logger,one a brickmason,both over 6' tall and hardened by work,wanna call them "faggots"?).How's about stop worrying about someone else and get your own life in order?

I would call a 6 man faggot so what. If he gets mad and wants to take action then another can of worms is opened up.

Why is it my business to tell them its wrong? Simple becasue they make darn sure to let me know they are faggots and I dont want my kids and grandkids exposed to it to the point where they think its ok.

Too often we sweep things under the rug and our family structure is falling apart.

They the puppet masters what you to think you shouldn't question the demoralization of society. It is how they are gona win and take this country over.

If you think that a large and growing portion of faggot life is something you shouldn't fight then you are telling your kids its ok to be a fudge packer.

Let's see...........demonize the unfamiliar or different or anything you are afraid of,make sure that whatever it is knows that it is outside of polite society,and make sure to know that nothing else could be true.GOT IT!

Let's see...........demonize the unfamiliar or different or anything you are afraid of,make sure that whatever it is knows that it is outside of polite society,and make sure to know that nothing else could be true.GOT IT!

....sounds a lot like anti firearm propaganda,don't it?

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I agree with Clyconeman. If we use the bible we all grew up with it does not preach tolerance and tell us to mind our own business. It clearly says it is wrong. Now as far as people living the gay lifestyle I could care less. I just do not have gay pride and do not want to be near it if possible. It is a perversion and I believe a choice. Now as far as it being unfamiliar..........I have a 34 yr old step-daughter who claims she was born a lesbian and my wife and I are very familiar with it. We still know how wrong it is.

I agree with Clyconeman. If we use the bible we all grew up with it does not preach tolerance and tell us to mind our own business. It clearly says it is wrong. Now as far as people living the gay lifestyle I could care less. I just do not have gay pride and do not want to be near it if possible. It is a perversion and I believe a choice. Now as far as it being unfamiliar..........I have a 34 yr old step-daughter who claims she was born a lesbian and my wife and I are very familiar with it. We still know how wrong it is.

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I assume the bible you are refferencing is the standard King James?May we examine it for a moment?
47 separate scholars involved in a translation taking about 8 years.
Entire books removed(yes,I have read the Apocrypha and other books,have copies).
Added entries to further James's political ambitions(folks were still slaughtering each other in England over Protestant v. Catholic,still are now)

Few questions,eh?

One of the folks that us firearms enthusiasts like to quote is Thomas Jefferson.Everybody seems to know his views on guns,not many seem to go deeper.Jefferson took a bible and cut all the teachings of Jesus out and pasted them in a book for his son,even had it printed as a regular book.The Jefferson Bible is available online,and to view the teachings of Jesus without the superstitions attached is amazing.To borrow from Jefferson,"a sublime moral code".Folks that follow Jesus might want to view it sometime.And remember the difference between the Old Testement and the New Covenat.

You know,this preoccupation with who someone wants to sleep with/fall in love with is tedious.I know a lot of folks that are other than straight,and they seem to be normal,productive,decent members of society.A lot of them you couldn't tell they were gay even if you had "gaydar"(point in fact,there is a couple up near where I grew up,Republican,gun owners,hunters,homeowners.One is a logger,one a brickmason,both over 6' tall and hardened by work,wanna call them "faggots"?).

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???. Do they just walk up to you and say they're gay. Are you in an environment where everybody orders a beer and says to the bartender, oh. by the way I'm gay, or at family get-togethers, church? How does the conversation arise?

Nobody I've ever known, has walked up to me and declared their gayness? No, I don't openly bash gays, no predisposed opinions about me, it just doesn't come up as a topic of conversation.

How's about stop worrying about someone else and get your own life in order?

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So, Jack404 has a problem as far as your concerned? I don't have a problem with adults doing whatever the agree to do, but, I do have an issue with placing kids who too young to know what they want, one way or the other, in an environment that promotes gays is wrong in every sense of the word.

By the way, IMO, anybody referring to themselves as bi-sexual, is a cop-out. No such thing.

folks i'll repeat my stance on this again , i've mates good friends who are gay , fags shirt lifters what ever , they are gay and big deal their call they are adults , , they are and will remain my friends , some do not wish to be friends due to my anti gay beleif , thats ok too .. their call .. i have served with a few and proud to be beside em on the field, they know i'm straight and "churchy" i know they are fag's ...

but these are school's, government ones and i think many here would object to their tax money being used to tell confused kid's they are fag's

there is a agenda pushing perversions , immorality , porn all as "normal"

whats normal about the homosexual act ?

and this is being paid for by tax payers?

i do not condem gays , i tell how i feel and leave it at that , if they wish to argue that i'm happy with too and why a few dont want to be my friend now , i made em feel guilty ..

again thats their choice , they are my frind if they need a hand , and they are in my prayers as i pray for gay folks , just like any other decent folks i run across who are in strife for one reason or another

someones wife is sick and suffering here i pray for her and him .. as watching your partner in pain is sad too ..

i pray for lot's of folks all of whom i wish to spend eternity with , with Our Lord ( even if they dont see Him as Our Lord)

folks in the welfare trap i pray for , folks in "fringe faiths"

i see their sin as seperate from them , why ? many are deceived and its crap in the story that helps deceive many more ..

i think its folks who cant see this as having the real problem

i'm just sad as i know sin of this nature will condem my friends to hell

and why i try to block this sort of thing ..

but if you think i posted this to take a shot at gays , think again , i posted this to show how our governments are helping break down the moral fibre of our communities and families and making us pay for it all , ever see em spend our money saying our Judeo Christian values are right ??

and how that all falls in with the grand plan for the USA destroy its morality and community spirit all for me and me for none ..

cheers

and if you think i kid

the brigade here has 1400+ gay members registered and active and i am grateful for each ones help fighting off sharia law and islam here ..

i'm big on recruiting gays to our side , as many are good folks , just sadly off track in life , (But! with God's help!...)

???. Do they just walk up to you and say they're gay. Are you in an environment where everybody orders a beer and says to the bartender, oh. by the way I'm gay, or at family get-togethers, church? How does the conversation arise?

Nobody I've ever known, has walked up to me and declared their gayness? No, I don't openly bash gays, no predisposed opinions about me, it just doesn't come up as a topic of conversation.

So, Jack404 has a problem as far as your concerned? I don't have a problem with adults doing whatever the agree to do, but, I do have an issue with placing kids who too young to know what they want, one way or the other, in an environment that promotes gays is wrong in every sense of the word.

By the way, IMO, anybody referring to themselves as bi-sexual, is a cop-out. No such thing.

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No problem with anyone really.Just amazed that with the whole of human history,all its knowledge,art and culture available thru the Internet or thru books,ignorance and bigotry still seem to be the easy way out.

folks i'll repeat my stance on this again , i've mates good friends who are gay , fags shirt lifters what ever , they are gay and big deal their call they are adults , , they are and will remain my friends , some do not wish to be friends due to my anti gay beleif , thats ok too .. their call .. i have served with a few and proud to be beside em on the field, they know i'm straight and "churchy" i know they are fag's ...

but these are school's, government ones and i think many here would object to their tax money being used to tell confused kid's they are fag's

there is a agenda pushing perversions , immorality , porn all as "normal"

whats normal about the homosexual act ?

and this is being paid for by tax payers?

i do not condem gays , i tell how i feel and leave it at that , if they wish to argue that i'm happy with too and why a few dont want to be my friend now , i made em feel guilty ..

again thats their choice , they are my frind if they need a hand , and they are in my prayers as i pray for gay folks , just like any other decent folks i run across who are in strife for one reason or another

someones wife is sick and suffering here i pray for her and him .. as watching your partner in pain is sad too ..

i pray for lot's of folks all of whom i wish to spend eternity with , with Our Lord ( even if they dont see Him as Our Lord)

folks in the welfare trap i pray for , folks in "fringe faiths"

i see their sin as seperate from them , why ? many are deceived and its crap in the story that helps deceive many more ..

i think its folks who cant see this as having the real problem

i'm just sad as i know sin of this nature will condem my friends to hell

and why i try to block this sort of thing ..

but if you think i posted this to take a shot at gays , think again , i posted this to show how our governments are helping break down the moral fibre of our communities and families and making us pay for it all , ever see em spend our money saying our Judeo Christian values are right ??

and how that all falls in with the grand plan for the USA destroy its morality and community spirit all for me and me for none ..

cheers

and if you think i kid

the brigade here has 1400+ gay members registered and active and i am grateful for each ones help fighting off sharia law and islam here ..

i'm big on recruiting gays to our side , as many are good folks , just sadly off track in life , (But! with God's help!...)

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I agree with all of this. Tax money being spent to promote gl agendas. Oh... I forgot it is gay,lesbians and transexuals. A confused lot I believe. My point is I do believe all of this is a choice and all of it is wrong. I do not believe in recruiting for these things either. The destruction of the family is going to hurt many souls and Satan has to love that. The "angel of light" - confusing many in the last days? My daughter says I am not a free thinker and therefor can't understand her homosexuality. I understand allright.......I just grieve for her soul.

not free thinking enough .. or your head and heart aint been corrupted enough that you still believe in the Truth ... the brain washing these folks get at the hands of these enablers , makes me so mad.. all these good folks getting condemed by their own works .... happy to add more to the list here ,